WWF work hard to do all they can to protect wildlife globally, but we are increasingly hearing of animals not being endangered or at-risk, but instead that they or on the brink of extinction.

Beyond the Dodo

If most people were asked to name a species that has gone extinct, many would be able to reel of a series of dinosaurs and the bird that has become synonymous with extinction; the dodo. But despite there having been hundreds, possibly thousands of species of species go extinct in the lifetime of even the younger generations of our population, most would struggle to name any of them.

In the next few years this situation could change. Sadly, rather than awareness of the need for conservation improving, this is likely to be because some of our most well-known species are in real danger of disappearing forever from the wild.

Irreversible

But we are becoming increasingly aware of the damage that we are doing to the environment. The problem is that the more research is undertaken into our effects on wildlife, the more it seems that the majority of the damage we are doing could be irreversible.

But in the middle of the Indian Ocean, amongst the idyllic Seychelles archipelago, there is a story that provides real hope that all is not lost for those species that teeter on the precipice of existence.

Cousin Island

Cousin Island is an island of only 29 hectares, comprised of glittering white sand and forest. While it may have once been an island paradise, years of cultivation for plantations left the island with little to no endemic flora and fauna left, with the alien coconut plants dominating the island.

The effects of this were epitomised by the Seychelles brush warbler (now simply called the Seychelles warbler). This bird is endemic to the Seychelles archipelago and must have once been numerous, but by the 1960 it was confined to a tiny patch of mangrove swamp, and the population was wavering between 25 and 30 individuals.

But in 1968, a a consortium of conservation organisations could no longer stand by after observing the plight of Cousin Island’s wildlife. Led by the International Council for the Protection of Birds (now Birdlife International), they offered to buy the island from the Seychelles royal family. Its owners let it go for just £17,700.
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Priceless

That price seems a snip now, as for conservationists Cousin Island has become priceless. The results of years of hard work on the island are starkly demonstrated in the numbers.

The population of Seychelles warblers has now almost reached a level where it will not be human intervention that will control their numbers but merely competition between the birds. Up to 320 individuals are believed to inhabit the island, which is close to the number the island can comfortably support.

The species has also been reintroduced to three nearby islands, boosting its total population into the thousands.

When many animals are speedily being reclassified to offer further protection, the warbler has been reclassified from “critically endangered” to “vulnerable”, which is the lowest threat level on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is expected that it will be off the list within two years.

This act of conservation alchemy was achieved through a combination of helpful circumstances and hard work that has been rigorously followed up on.

No Rats No Cats

The first favourable circumstance that has made this turnaround possible is that Cousin Island has never been invaded by rats or cats. Most other islands’ stories of wildlife woes arise because terrestrial mammals have been introduced that the endemic wildlife is not adapted to fight or flee from. Cousin Island’s lucky escape meant that animals such as the warbler were able to hang on with their last remaining numbers, even when the native flora was largely replaced by coconuts.

Without alien predators to flush out, the battle to return Cousin Island to its wildlife required its alien flora to be removed. This may sound like an easy task, but it is a constant battle to keep it that way, with patrols required to spot even the smallest sapling that could spawn a regrowth of unwanted plants. Most of the plants on Cousin are now endemics, making it the only island in the Seychelles largely free of alien flora

Beyond Conservation

Ecotourism plays a vital role in maintaining the efforts on Cousin. Educational tours come to the island,with all the money raised going back into conservation. These are a necessary evil for those attempting to protect their successes on Cousin, as the wildlife remains vulnerable to possible threats people could unknowingly bring in with them.

Although birds are transported between islands to try to maximise genetic diversity, the species on the island are still vulnerable to disease. Anyone and anything coming into the island is screened to make sure no pesky rats hitch-hiking their way onto the island. People are even told to not remove any shells from the island in order to prevent pressure being put on burgeoning hermit crab populations.

All Creatures Great and Small

And the hermit crabs are just one of a number of animals other than the birds that now call Cousin Island home. Vast colonies of seabirds nest there too, including white-tailed tropicbirds and the ethereally beautiful fairy terns. The forest is crawling with rare skinks and geckos, and giant tortoises plod about. Rare land crabs and those shell-craving hermit crabs abound. It is also the most important nesting site for hawksbill turtles in the western Indian Ocean.

The Hawksbill may surpass even the Island’s birds as its great success story. In the past 30 years there has been an eightfold increase in the nesting population on Cousin. Nirmal Shah, chief executive of Nature Seychelles cites the turtles as a perfect example for the message that the Cousin Island project can send:

“This is long-awaited proof that conservation works even for long-lived and critically endangered species”

Beyond Cousin Island

Cousin Island is already providing a boost to conservation efforts beyond its shores. Nature Seychelles has applied the Cousin model to other islands in the archipelago, and while rats and other obstacles provide slightly different challenges in each case, workers are able to look at the thriving wildlife on Cousin and see that their efforts can make a real difference.

This message of hope could well be Cousin Island’s real legacy. It is worrying that for many people the prevailing thought seems to be that conservation efforts are admirable but ultimately futile. Hopefully as more people see the beauty of life that has returned to Cousin Island, its example will resonate across the land and sea and give people the belief that with their help, conservation efforts can rectify the damage that we have done and that we will all be able to recount stories of the animals we saw saved, rather than those that we let go extinct during our lifetimes.